President Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday told the NIT scholars, who called on him at the Rashtrapati Bhavan here, that technology is power.
President Mukherjee quoted Swami Vivekananda and said that 'Expansion is life, Contraction is death'.
He urged the young NIT scholars to never stop and constantly move forward.
President Mukherjee said that the common thread he noticed among the NIT scholars was that they want to be agents of change in whatever capacity they were placed in to serve the country. He wished them a happy and prosperous career ahead.
The President said that NITs are front-ranking institutions in our country for imparting quality scientific and technical education.
"The growth of NITs, as a class of institution, is diverse. There are old NITs with whose origins one can draw a parallel with the genesis of modern industrial India. The fact that the growth of NITs since their inception is primarily the result of indigenous efforts, without help from foreign institutions, is truly commendable," he added.
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President Mukherjee said that talking of diversity, the NIT system is marked by a unique student mix.
"Each NIT portrays a national character by design, making its campus a 'mini-India'. Inter-mingling of students from different parts of India in one institute has many positive spin-offs, including the development of a pan-India vision in each one of them," he added.
The President told the NIT students that they are an asset to this nation.
"There will therefore be hopes and expectations from them. They must understand and appreciate their responsibilities," he added.
He said that because of their education, they not only had the capacity to dream big but also to implement that vision.
President Mukherjee urged them to go ahead and make a difference to the society in which they lived in.
The second batch of 19 NIT scholars from across the country participating in an 'In-Residence' programme of Rashtrapati Bhavan were unanimous in saying that they would always cherish the memories of the lifetime opportunity they had received to be participants of the programme at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
They also said that this invaluable experience had given them great confidence and reinvigorated a deep sense of patriotism in them as well as a feeling of optimism in the system of governance in the country.
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The 'In-Residence' programme for NITs was announced by President Mukherjee at the annual Conference of Directors of NITs held in October 2014.
The first batch of seventeen NIT scholars took part in a similar 'In Residence' programme from April 11 to 17.